In a surprising comment made
during a popular UK radio show, the founder of one of the largest Pizza
chains in the United States and United Kingdom told listeners not to
eat too much pizza!

In an interview with host Adam
Shaw on BBC’s Radio Four program, John Schnatter, the founder of
Papa John’s pizza, was asked whether he was concerned about the
British government’s recent actions in the fast food restaurant
business to help put the brakes on obesity.

Schnatter said, “Pizza
is actually healthy for you if you don’t eat too much of it. You
can’t eat five or six slices but if you eat one or two slices
it’s very nutritious.”

Laughing, Shaw replied,
“I’m not sure your investors would want to hear you tell
people, ‘don’t eat too much of our pizzas!”’

Across the web, bloggers and
tweeters have been putting in their two cents. Some say he was a little
TOO honest. Others say this was either the worst PR screw up
ever… or the best PR move ever (you know what they say about
“bad” publicity).

Although I wouldn’t call
pizza health food, I think his advice to eat pizza, but only in
moderation was the responsible thing for a fast food owner to do at a
time where obesity is reaching epidemic proportions, not just in the
United States but in the U.K. and other countries as well.

Moreover, it was just plain
good diet advice! One reason people are failing to control their weight
is because of all-or-none thinking, i.e, “I can’t eat ANY
pizza EVER again!” or, “I have to follow my diet 100% or
not at all.”

In my experience, all or none
thinking is one of the biggest causes of diet failure. It’s far
better from a psychological perspective to eat your pizza; simply enjoy
it infrequently and in small quantities.

Think of you on a diet like a
pressure cooker on a burner. The longer you keep that pot on the heat,
the more the steam pressure builds up inside. If there’s no
outlet or release valve on that thing, eventually the pressure builds
up so much that even if it’s made of steel and the lid is bolted
down, she’s gonna blow, sooner or later.

Well, in the beginning, you
might think your willpower is made of steel and that you’re
bolted tigher than a submarine hatch, but the longer you’re on a
diet with no relief, the greater the pressure builds up until YOU blow
your top… and that means massive binge eating.

But if you let off a little
steam in the form of a “free meal” (or two) and enjoy that
slice of pizza (or whatever is your favorite ‘poison’) on
occasion, that relieves the pressure. Alas, you never even feel the
urge to binge… because you HAD your pizza and the urge was
satisfied. Since the meal was planned and you kept the calories under
control, it had little or no effect on your fat loss results.

This topic of conversation was
prompted on the BBC radio show during a discussion about how the Pizza
business was doing during the recession and about efforts to stem the
growing obesity crisis in the UK.

Earlier last month, The Food
Standards Agency in the UK started negotiating with UK food, pub and
sandwich chains to display calories on their menus to try to provide
education about healthier options for consumers who eat out frequently.

The move is similar to one
made in New York City last year, where restaurant chains that have more
than 15 locations must print calories on the menus. According to an
article in the British Medical Journal, this has resulted in an average
reduction of 50-100 calories for each food order. Not much, but at
least it’s something.

In the case of pizza, a 2.2
ounce thin-crusted slice of cheese pizza could have as little as 190
calories. One slice of “meat lover’s” pizza, on the
other hand, could set you back almost 500 calories! If you knew the
difference, would it change what kind and how much you ate?

I’m totally in favor of
posting calories on menus, despite the critics who say it won’t
make a difference. I think anything that raises calorie awareness is
going to affect behavior in a positive way and help make for better
food decisions. Whether it should be mandatory by law is debatable. I
say, let the restaurants decide and then let the marketplace sort
itself out.

I would be more likely to
recommend or support the restaurants who opted to post calories,
increase their range of healthy choices… and on that rare
occasion, have a CEO who actually says, “Eat my food, but not too
much!!”

Now, if we can only get those Mcdonalds’s execs to say the same thing!

Train hard and expect success,

Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Coach
Burn The Fat

P.S. No relation to Venuto's Pizza, hahaha

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